To be effective, your assets exclusive of IRAs and qualified retirement plans (i.e., home, car, personal property, investments, checking accounts, etc.) must be transferred to and titled in the name of the trust so they are owned by that trust instead of you. That's called "funding" the trust. On transfer, those assets are controlled by the trustee(s). You may be both the trustee and the beneficiary of that trust, which means you use those assets just as you did before.

Why do you say "your assets exclusive of IRAs"?I'm having a problem with my broker refusing to accept a change of beneficiary to my "Family Name" IRA Q-Tip Trust, dated ---, XXX and XXX, Trustees.My advisor says it's absolutely necessary to file this 4 page document in order to be able to take advantage of the tax exemption that will benefit our children after the death of both of us.The broker insists on their own 1 page form, making it impossible to submit the proper form for the Trust.What's not working correctly?

<<Why do you say "your assets exclusive of IRAs"?I'm having a problem with my broker refusing to accept a change of beneficiary to my "Family Name" IRA Q-Tip Trust, dated ---, XXX and XXX, Trustees.My advisor says it's absolutely necessary to file this 4 page document in order to be able to take advantage of the tax exemption that will benefit our children after the death of both of us.The broker insists on their own 1 page form, making it impossible to submit the proper form for the Trust.What's not working correctly? >>

Actually, I was in error there. The IRS ruled a couple of years ago that a revocable living trust could be a beneficiary of an IRA with distributions from that IRA being based on the life expectancy of the trust's beneficiary. However, the trust must follow some strict guidelines, and the document must be on file with the IRA custodian. The problem is the IRA provider does not have to accept that beneficiary designation, and many won't for whatever reason. If that's true of your provider, then your only recourse is to move the IRA to a provider who will.